Thursday, July 11, 2013

On the coming revisionism in WW1 History. Sophie Shrubsoleon the first rewrite and the one to come.

It took literature and some key individuals to change history. As one of my university lecturers once said to me, history does not happen, it is written, and that principle could not be applied more strongly to the case of First World War history.

With the publication of Alan Clark's The Donkeys (1961) and the production of Joan Littlewood's musical Oh! What a Lovely War (1963), a wave of popular history provided the foundation through which all subsequent knowledge of the First World War is filtered - precisely the problem with which we are now faced. Historians and thespians took the critical words of those men that had a grudge and an agenda to push, namely Lloyd George and Churchill, thus generating the idea that generals were both inept and callous.

But beyond the Blackadder episodes there is a raft of history that is desperate to break into the mainstream. No one doubts that there were a handful of poor officers at various stages of the command structure who made bad decisions that ultimately cost the lives of hundreds of men.

But as a country, we seem to forget as a matter of course that 1918 brought us victory. Could this have been possible against the might of Germany's Imperial Army with such incompetent leadership? Clearly there is another history to expose.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

A statue of a Black Watch soldier is to be erected in Belgium to commemorate the more than 8000 officers and soldiers who died in the costliest chapter of the world-famous regiment’s history.

It will also pay tribute to more than 20,000 who were wounded in the First World War.

The unveiling of the larger-than-life bronze statue at Black Watch Corner near Ypres in the spring of 2014 will mark the start of four years of commemorative events recalling the sacrifices of all who fought in the war.

The erection of this statue, and the pilgrimage by Black Watch veterans and serving soldiers to the Flanders site that proved to be a pivotal battleground in 1914, will be the first Scottish event in the worldwide Great War centenary commemorations.